Automatic rail locator for rail flaw detector mechanisms



Aug. 30, 1932. p, USHNIE 1,874,030

AUTOMATIC RAIL LOCATOR FOR RAIL FLAW DETECTOR MECHANISMS Filed Nov. 10, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 VIII/IIIIIIIIIII/II/Il/l/I/II/II/II/I/I/II/I/I/fi/IIIIIMIIIMW/ml/IM/I/I/IIIII/MIMI! M 81 nut-I71]!!! VIII VII/llnn- 16 Jilin. 52- 25 4 I T l w P 41 Peter Cushme BY %VA{TTORNE Aug. 30, 1932. CUSHNlE 1,874,030

AUTOMATIC RAIL LOCATOR FOR RAIL FLAW DETECTOR MECHANISMS Filed Nov. 10, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 65 I INVENTOR 62 Peter Cushme BY /V ATTORNEY I Aug. 30, 1932. P; CUSHNIE 1,874,030

AUTOMATIC RAIL LOCATOR FOR RAIL FLAW DETECTOR MECHANISMS Filed Nov.. 1 0. 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR Peter Cushme Patented Aug. 30, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER CUSHNIE, OF WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO SPERRY PRODUCTS, INC., BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK AUTOMATIC RAIL LOCATOR FOR RAIL FLAW DETECTOR MECHANISMS Application filed November 10, 1931. Serial No. 574,145.

This invention relates to rail flaw detector cars which carry rail flaw detecting mechanism adapted to be raised and lowered with respect to the car. This invention is. an im-v provement over the invention disclosed in the patent application of Walter M. Perry and George L. Jones, Serial No. 436,822, for automatic rail locator for brushes of fissure detector car, filed March 18, 1930. In said therefore, the provision of means whereby the detecting mechanism may be lowered to effective position to insure rapid engagement of said mechanism with the rails even when travelling around a curve.

This invention has a similar object in view, that is, to enable the detector mechanism to engage the rails when lowered thereon around a curve, but seeks to solve a further 3 problem which presents itself in the case where such mechanism is mounted on a relatively long car and nearer one truck than the other. The theory underlying this invention will be explained in detail in the following specification.

In the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a detector carriage mounting with the car body removed and embodying one form of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the Fig. 1 device.

Fig. 3 represents a plan view of a car and detector mechanism with the body of the car cut away so asto show the relative position of the trucks and detector carriage.

Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a section taken on the line 5-'-5 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a View similar to Fig. 1 showing a modified form of my invention.

Fig. 7 is a perspective, largely diagrammatic, illustrating the Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 5 form of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a group of diagrams illustrating the theory embodied in the Fig. '1 diagram.

Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating the theory of the fluid pressure cylinder mountings.

Referring to Fig. 2 of the drawings, I have shown the usual elements of the Sperry rail flaw detector car consisting of a current brush carriage 10 having a plurality of sets of brushes 11 and 12 for passing current through the rail or other conductor. said current being supplied by a generator, not shown, within a car body C. Said carriage 10 is designed to be lowered by pneumatic means such as compressed air cylinders 14, 15. The' said cylinders may be double-acting so that the carriage is raised as well as lowered by pneumatic means, or spring and cable means 16 may be provided, as in the said Perry and Jones case, for raising the carriage. The detector coils form a searching unit 15 which is supported on the current brush carriage 10. Said current brush carriage is provided with front and rear wheels 19, 20 pivotally' connected to said carriage, said wheels having1 flanges which are designed to engage the rar The current brush carriages at the two sides of the car body are interconnected by means of a frame indicated generally at 25 (see Fig. 1), and said frame may be provided with locator wheels 26, 27 pivotally mounted on the frame at 30 so that they may be swung upwardly and downwardly by means of a cable-connection 31 and pinion and worm 32, 33 operated from a handle or wheel 34 within the car body. It will be understood that with the frame 25 and the detector mechanism in raised position, the track is first located through opening28 in the floor of the car, and wheels 26, 27 are then lowered into engagement with the track. The entire frame 25 may be moved laterally by means of rack and pinion 35, 36 operated from a secnd handle or wheel 37 within the car body. The track thus located by the locator wheels in fact locates frame 25 with respect to the track so that the detector mechanism at each side may then be lowered until wheels 19 and 20 engage the rail, and then further downward movement of the carriages will cause the brushes 11, 12 to engage the rail. All this mechanism is similar to the mechanism described in the said copending application of Perry and Jones.

Such mechanism, however, is found to be inadequate in that case wherein a relatively long ear is employed and the detector mechanism is positioned nearer one end of said car than the other. Thus, referring to Fig. 3, it will be seen that the positioning of the detector mechanism nearer the rear truck R than the front truck F of the car means that when coming down on a curve the forward wheels 19 of the carriages must be moved laterally a greater distance than the rear wheels 20 ofsaid carriages, if said wheels are to engage the tracks. By this invention, I provide means whereby such forward wheels, and hence the forward part of the carriages, will be moved laterally in the proper direction a greater distance than the rear wheels when on a, curve, in the case where the detector mechanism is positioned nearer the rear truck than the front truck. In the case where the detector mechanism is positioned nearer the front truck than the rear truck, the movement would, of course, be interchanged and it would be necessary to move the wheels 20 laterally a greater distance than the wheels 19.

The means whereby I am enabled to move the further set of wheels a greater lateral distance than the nearer set of wheels comprises the following: The locator wheel 26 is carried by a side-frame 29 which is pivotally connected to the frame 25 at 41 (Fig. 7). As the locator frame 25 is moved laterally to permit the wheels 26, 27 toengage the track, it will be obvious that side-frame 29 swings from pivot 40 and carries frame 25 with it. Said frame 25 is pivotally connected at 42 to a lever 43 which swings from pivot 44 in line with pivots 40 of side-frame 29.

Referring to Fig. 8, it will be seen that if the bottom of locator wheel 26 swings laterally from pivots 40 a distance X plus Y, then point 41 at the frame will swing a lesser distance X, but the wheel 19 will swing the full distance X plus Y. The frame 25, however, swings only through the lateral distance X. At the rear of frame 25 there is fixed a bar 45 at 47 which is connected to wheel 20 through a link 46 connected to the lever 43 at 49, which is in turn connected to wheel 20. Since the frame 25 is moved through the lateral distance X and since arm 45 is fixed to said frame, the bottom point 48 of arm 45 moves through lateral distance X and therefore link 46 moves through lateral distance X to carry wheel 20 through the same distance X. Thus it will be seen that by the connections hereinbefore described, the forward wheels 19 move through a lateral distance X plus Y corresponding to the distance X plus Y which locator wheel 26 moves through, while the rear wheels 20 move through only' the distance X. By suitably proportioning' the arms of various linkages, the proper differential movement between the forward and the rear carriage wheels may thus be obtained.

Since the piston-rods P and P are connected to the current brush carriage 10 at pivots 70, 71 respectively, and have little or no movement about an axis at right angles thereto, i. e., about an axis in the plane of the paper, it will be seen that unless piston-rods P and P remain parallel the carriage would be restrained from moving as described above, i. e., one end moving laterally through a greater distance than the other end, since the lower ends of said piston-rods at points 7 0 and 71 move unequal distances. It is necessary to mount the cylinders 14 and 15 for pivotal movement at different heights about the points 70, 71 to take care of the said unequal movements and maintain the pistonrods P, P parallel. For th s reason, cylinder 14 is mounted in this instance for movement around pivots 80, while cylinder 15 is mounted for movement around pivots 81. The theory of this mounting is shown in dia gram of Fig. 9. Since the point 71 at the lower end of piston-rod P moves outwardly a distance X plus Y and since point at the lower end of piston-rod P moves outwardly a distance X, it is necessary to provide the pivots 80, 81 at the respective heights shown in order to maintain the piston-rods P, P at all times parallel.

In Figs. 3 and 6, I have shown modified forms of my invention wherein the d fferential movement of wheels 19 and 20 is obtained by other means. Thus, in the Fig. 8 form of the invention, instead of a single frame 25 interconnecting all of the wheels of the carriages at both sides, the forward wheels 19 are interconnected by a similar frame or bar 25 and the rear wheels are interconnected by a similar frame or bar-25". frames are in turn interconnected by levers 50 and 51 which operate around pivots 52 and 53 fixed to the car body. One end of each lever s connected to frame 25 or 25" and the other ends of the lovers are interconnected, all of such connections being pinand-slot connections to enable the levers to move freely. The arms of the levers are so proportioned that a movement of pivot 55 will cause greater lateral movement of wheels 19 than of wheels 20, in the arrangement shown in Fig. 3.

In 6, I have shown another modification of my invention, similar to Fig. 3

form but substituting a rack and pinion connection for the levers shown in Fig. 3. A lever 60 is provided, which is pivoted at 61 on a fixed point on the car body and is connected to frame 25 by a pin-and slot connection 62 and carries at its other end a segmental rack 63 which is driven by a pinion 64 and rack 65, said rack carried by frame 25. In this instance, the gearing ratio may be selected to give the proper differential movement between wheels 19 and wheels 20.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have herein described the principle and operation of my invention, together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means. Also, while it is designed to use the various features and elements in the combination and relations described, some of these may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the more general results outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

Having described my invention, what I.

' ed thereon, means whereby said mechanism ineffective positions, said mechanism being may be lowered and raised to eflective and mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of'said mechanism through unequal distances.

2. In combination, a rail flaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon nearer one end of said car than the other, means whereby said mechanism may be lowered and raised to effective and. ineffective positions, said mechanism being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the farther .end of said mechanism through a greater lateral distance than the nearer end.

3. In combination, a rail fiaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon at each side thereof, means whereby said mechanisms may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions, said mechanisms being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward endsof each of said mechanisms through unequal distances.

4. In combination, a rail fiaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon at each side thereof, means whereby said mechanisms may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions,

said mechanisms being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of each of said mechanisms through unequal distances, said last named means ineluding a frame and connections between said cluding a rail-locator, a frame connected to said locator to move therewith, and connections between said frame .and the forward and the rearward ends of each of said mechanisms.

6. In combination, a rail flaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon at each side thereof, means whereby said mechan sms may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions, said mechanisms being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends ofeach of said mechanisms through unequal distances, said last' named means including a rail locator, a frame conected to sa d locator to move therewith, and connections of different effective lengths between said frame and the forward and the rearward ends of each of said mechanisms.

7. Incombination, a rail flaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon, means whereby said mech-,

anism may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions, sa d mechanism being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism through unequal distances, said last named means including a rail locator, a member connected to said locator to move therewith, and connections between said-member and the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism.

8. In combination, a rail flaw detector car having a rail vflaw detector mechanism mounted thereon, means whereby said mechanism may be lowered and raised toefl'ective and ineffective positions, said mechanism being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism through unequal distances, said last namedmeans including a rail locator, a member connected tosaid locator to move therewith, and connections of diff'erentefl'ective lengths between said member and the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism. 9. In combmatmn, a rall flaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechamsm mounted thereon, means includingfluid pressure cylinders, pistons and piston rods connected to opposite ends of said mechanism whereby said mechanism may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions, said means and said mechanism being mounted on said car for lateral movement, means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism through 11nequal distances, and means whereby said piston rods are maintained parallel during said unequal movements of the ends of said mechanism.

10. In combination, a rail flaw detector car having a rail flaw detector mechanism mounted thereon, means including fluid pressure cylinders, pistons and piston rods connected to opposite ends of said mechanism whereby said mechanism may be lowered and raised to effective and ineffective positions, said means and said mechanism being mounted on said car for lateral movement, and means for simultaneously moving the forward and rearward ends of said mechanism through unequal distances, said cylinders being-mounted so that the effective lengths of said piston rods are proportional to said distances whereby said rods are maintained parallel during said unequal movements of the ends of said mechanism.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

PETER CUSHNIE. 

